Council “out of touch” say Labour

Published:10:48Tuesday 23 July 2013

A glossy end of year council report, which fails to mention planned cuts of £30 m or the 1200 recent council job losses since 2007, exposes how “out of touch” Dumfries and Galloway Council’s ruling SNP Tory coalition are, according to the opposition Labour Group.

The report was presented to a meeting of the full council last week, claiming to show progress in meeting the council’s priorities. However, despite a chapter on the economy and job creation, there was no mention of recent council job cuts or a planned 10 per cent reduction in the council’s budget over the next two years.

It was left to the chief executive to fill in the blanks in a covering note to the published glossy report.

Leader of the opposition Labour Group Ronnie Nicholson said: “At a time when we are seeing services cut across the region, local people will be angry that the council is spending taxpayers’ money producing fancy glossy reports such as this. However people will be really aghast that the report claims the council is making great progress in creating jobs, but conveniently fails to mention the 1200 council posts axed since 2007. The council has cut more jobs than any other employer in the region. The report itself also doesn’t even mention the planned 10 per cent reduction in the council’s budget over the next two years, which shows how desperate the SNP Tory coalition is to cover up their planned cuts in services. If the council are going to produce reports such as this then instead of saying everything is just fine, our council Leaders need to start being honest with the public. If they continue with this spin, then the public will continue to think the council are out of touch with what is actually happening in our local communities”.